Why Not Philadelphia? By Thom Nickels, For The Bulletin 11/16/2008 Many questions have been asked about the proposed American Commerce Cen...

Saturday, February 18, 2017

My Review of the film 'Jackie' for Philadelphia's Irish Edition

Look at photographs of the grassy knoll at DealeyPlaza in Dallas, Texas, where President John
F. Kennedy’s motorcade sped away after an assassin’s bullets in 1963 changed
the course of history, and you may find yourself imagining the pain the First
Lady felt as she held her dying husband in her arms.

That horrific moment still lives
in grainy newsreel footage, but it comes alive for us again in the form of
Natalie Portman who plays Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy in Pablo Larrain’s “Jackie,”
an intense psychological biopic about the life of the First Lady immediately
after the assassination. Those dark days put the nation in mourning even as
Jackie processed the shock alone, as the scene of Portman as Jackie scrubbing her
face of her husband’s blood in the bathroom of Air Force One so chillingly
details.

“Jackie” opens with the
former First Lady being interviewed in the KennedyHyannisPort compound by Theodore
H. White for Life magazine. White is
played by Billy Crudup who captures the writer’s suave and erudite manner.
Eager to make a name for himself in journalism, his engagement with Jackie has
all the elements of a verbal fencing match. Jackie isn’t going to let him have
her story without a struggle. More therapist than journalist, Crudup’s White is
patient to a fault but he’s not afraid to dig deep. He wants Jackie to spill
her guts and relive what she saw and felt that day near the grassy knoll. Jackie acquiesces in small doses and gives White
an occasional Big Feeling Moment, but then states, “Of course this is off the
record.” Portman is so believable as the First Lady that we begin to realize
that this is much more than a film but, as has been stated, “The scariest
history lesson ever.”

The nearly flawless script by
Noah Oppenheim makes this 95-minute film seem much shorter. It also makes us
not care so much that JFK (Caspar Phillipson) appears only a few times in quick
juxtaposed flash backs.

Portman’s Jackie opens a world
heretofore unseen: We are with her as she walks through the rooms of the White
House like a numb, disembodied spirit. On her first night in Washington after the
assassination we see her taking off her blood stained clothes and breaking down
in the shower. Then she puts on a chiffon night gown and in a radiant gesture,
crawls into bed in a lounging position and lights a cigarette to life.

Alone with her children, who
can’t understand where daddy is and why he won’t be coming home, Jackie’s sense
of alienation grows. The viewer feels her growing displacement and the fact
that the White House is now alien territory, a morgue of memories filled with mementos
that she must wrap up and put into boxes for her new home in New York City. If there is one flaw
in the film it is the odd choice of actors portraying Caroline (Sunnie Pelant)
and young John John (Brody and Aiden Weinberg). Their odd physical features are
far removed from the standard Kennedy and Bouvier good looks.

A decidedly unhappy moment in the film occurs
when Jackie’s walks in on Lyndon Johnson and Lady Byrd as they pick out new White
House wall paper; in an instant we see what the widow sees: her famous
remodeling of the White House going up in smoke. But all is not perfect
ladylike composure, especially when she loses her temper with brother-in-law
Bobby (Peter Sarsgaard) and with the Secret Service over arrangements for the
presidential funeral.

Priests are rarely portrayed
well in Hollywood, but John Hurt as
Father Richard McSorley displays the seasoned wisdom of a long suffering philosopher.
When he walks with Jackie in a tree lined Washington park on cold gray
winter afternoons, he does his best to answer her questions concerning the
mystery and (possible) futility of life.

Happily, Jackie feels little futility when
she decides to promote the legacy of Camelot after replaying the music that she
and Jack had so enjoyed in happier days. If she cannot have her husband back, she can
at least extract ‘revenge’ in the form of an historic legacy that will live
well into the ages.

Followers

About Me

I am a Philadelphia-based author/journalist, the author of nine published books, including: The Cliffs of Aries (1988), Two Novellas: Walking Water & After All This (1989), The Boy on the Bicycle (1991-1994), Manayunk (1997), Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia (2000), Tropic of Libra (2002), Out in History and Philadelphia Architecture (2005)and SPORE (2010). In 1990, Two Novellas was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and a Hugo Award. Winner of the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Two Novellas rewritten and retitled for Starbooks Press: Walking on Water & After All This, available as an e-book. Winner of the Philadelphia AIA 2005 Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism. I am currently the City Beat editor at ICON Magazine, a contributing editor/writer at The Weekly Press, and a weekly columnist (The Local Lens) for Philadelphia’s SPIRIT Community Newspapers. I am the Religion Editor for the Lambda Book Report, and have written for Philadelphia's Broad Street Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
www.tnickels.net